Madoff: The Man Who Stole $65 Billion by Erin Arvedlund/Madoff with the Money by Jerry Oppenheimer

Bernard Madoff is the Dr Harold Shipman of fraud. The financial annihilation he wrought was unique, but nobody can work out exactly what motivated him to betray trust on such a vast scale.

A number of authors have now leapt into that void, publishing books within months of the 71-year-old fraudster's sentencing (to an improbable 150 years in jail). Only two of them have any obvious claim to special insight. One is Erin ­Arvedlund, who some years ago cast doubt on Madoff's apparent success in producing returns to investors of between 10% and 17% a year for almost two decades, without - and this was the truly remarkable thing - ever losing a cent, even at times of stock-market slump.

Arvedlund's original article was published in 2001, under the headline Don't Ask, Don't Tell. This was essentially Madoff's response to her when she approached him for an explanation of his investment strategy.